Chapter 255: A Sight To See
Laughing with her mouth full, Mistress Grogh slurped Widow's arm down her throat, the broodspawn's fingers slipping past her lips before she let out a satisfied burp. Wiping her mouth with one arm, Grogh began rubbing her tits as moisture leaked between her legs and darkened the ground beneath her.
"A virgin?! You're a disgrace to Lust! But how could you seduce a man with a body like yours!"
Laughter burst from her mouth along with bits of Widow's flesh as she hefted the club over her shoulder.
"Don't worry, honey, mama will be your first. I'll stretch your holes out reeeaaaal good."
John stepped between them, his aura practically boiling around him as he stared down Mistress Grogh.
"You are by far, the most disgusting thing I have ever seen, or smelled. I bet your pussy smells even worse. Bloated hag!"
Throwing his bladed arms wide, John charged. Poison coated their edges as he closed the distance—
Grogh responded by vomiting directly into his face.
His screams came instantly. Chitin hissed as his body began to melt, while Grogh threw her head back and laughed.
"Men are all talk. And since you brought it up, my pussy smells like fucking roses!"
Bringing her club down, she crushed what remained of him into a bloody mass of broken chitin. The survivors scattered in every direction, and Grogh chased after, stomping wherever she saw movement.
"My prince?! Come back!"
She stopped mid-stomp, one foot still raised. Her head lifted as her monstrous snout sucked in the air several times.
"That smell. Smells like a real man."
Her eyes locked on the direction where Seo-jin lay. Scraping her bloated foot against the ground to wipe away the bug juice, she licked her lips with a warted grey tongue and started toward him—
"We aren't done yet."
Grogh's eyes flew open as she spun and swung at empty air.
Her breath came heavy as she searched around herself, only to growl when she looked over and noticed Widow still hadn't moved an inch. Yet for some reason, she could have sworn the bitch had just been standing right behind her.
"You want more?! Enjoy my touch that much? Fine. Ladies first!"
Pink vapor began leaking from between her folds as her aura climbed, the air around her growing thick with it.
Widow remained where she was, her body already mostly healed. With her siblings still eating, Feed had stitched her back together, but she barely noticed the flesh closing or the feeling returning to her limbs.
All she could think about was her brother.
Bile was her spawnmate. His was the first face she had ever seen, even before the Broodfather's. Her first hunt had been with him. Her first laugh. She remembered the pride she'd felt when he finally got his class and could stand in front of their father without fear. Now all of it kept playing through her head, every memory dragging the next one with it. She'd tried to ignore them. Tried to force them down and be like the others. But Bile was still gone, and no matter how hard she tried to bury what that did to her, it wasn't working.
"Are you gonna cry, fuck, or fight?!"
Grogh was already on top of her, club raised, when she abruptly stopped short. Her body jerked, her face twisting in pain.
The six spider legs protruding from Widow's back had shot forward and buried themselves in the larger demon. One pierced each shoulder, two drove into her waist, and the last pair punched into her thighs, holding Grogh in place as she strained against them.
"Sneaky bitch! You think your strong enough to hold me?!"
Slowly, Widow raised her head to meet Grogh's gaze as the flesh of her face began to shrivel.
"Yeah, I do."
Grogh's flushed skin began to pale as Widow's entire body emptied, and an enormous mass of hairy black flesh forced its way from the slit in her back. Six more legs emerged first, followed by a massive thorax bearing a demonic green face. She struggled harder as Widow's true form took shape, but the legs buried in her body held firm as Widow's dripping fangs undulated inches from her face. Eyes...so many black eyes. Grogh was reflected in each one, her face getting bigger as what was more teeth than head had stopped with barely an inch between them.
"This is for Bile."
Grogh's throat swelled as she tried to vomit, but Widow was faster. Before the Warlord could open her mouth, Widow's jaws closed over her face.
Screams and vomit spilled between them. Steam rose through the foul stink while their bodies thrashed against the broken ground, the struggle violent and frantic. Through the screaming, wet impacts, and limbs scraping against stone, the sound of chewing never stopped...even after Grogh's screams did.
----
Watching it all, Panic practically drooled. When John had nearly been killed, he'd shot to his feet, ready to finally intervene, but the sudden rise in killing intent from his sister stopped him cold. Since her evolution, he hadn't been the biggest fan of her new body. Looking at her now, though, he felt heat rush through his loins in a way it never had before.
He had never wanted to kill something more in his life. She was too beautiful.
As if in a daze, he found himself standing and walking toward her, his restraints loosening around his body before calmly unfurling behind him...
"What—?"
He woke. Just before he stepped within range, his mind cleared, and he stopped short. His breathing came hard and fast as he quickly pulled the restraints back around himself.
"You okay?"
A small winged Vent Bug buzzed onto his shoulder, but instead of answering, Panic ate it without thinking—
"Assho—!"
Licking his teeth, he cleared his throat to get Widow's attention, and her massive bulk swung around. Grogh's leg was hanging from her mouth...and numerous tears were spilling down her monstrous face.
"Every angel—every cherub, every member of that fucking church—I'm gonna kill them. I'm gonna eat their fucking souls..."
Dropping the leg, her voice broke into a ragged sob. Panic felt the weight behind it, heavy with rage and something he understood less. Sadness. Sadness for their brother.
"Bile died protecting Father. You shouldn't cry. Be proud."
Between heaves, she leaned forward and screamed directly into his face.
"I know I shouldn't cry! And I am proud! Just leave me alone!"
Turning her back on him, she went back to finishing off what remained of Grogh.
Panic stood frozen. He felt...embarrassed? He wasn't sure.
Buzzing up beside him, another Vent Bug looked from Panic to Widow and back again.
"Shouldn't have said that."
Something moved fast through the air—
"Again—?!"
The bug dropped from the air in two pieces as Panic drew his tail back.
Seeing a small cloud of Vent bugs gathering at the other end of the street, Panic snorted, then looked toward where the old human was fighting the black demon. For some reason, he suddenly imagined what it would feel like to get bitten by that giant dog.
"Bet it feels better than this..."
His tail dragging behind him, he headed toward Father, calling back over his shoulder.
"Follow when you're done!"
He heard her grunt behind him, and that was enough. He knew John would watch her, but when he went to take another step, the very thing he'd been thinking about a moment before, slammed down directly in front of him in a burning heap.
The giant dog was breathing hard.
Its chest heaved as the aura pouring off its body warped the air enough to make Panic back up.
"Get away!"
The old woman's voice rang inside his skull, and he spun around just in time to see a massive black hand descending.
His smile almost split his face.
"Fun!"
He dove aside, only for the impact to catch him anyway and fling him laughing through the air as a yelp escaped the dog. He didn't see what happened next as he crashed to a stop, but he could feel it—the impacts and pressure from their fight hitting him like explosions going off right beside him. It felt like the world was shaking as he struggled to his feet.
"Widow?! Where'd she—"
He spotted her behind a large scrap of steel, her massive body already retreating back into her human flesh. He sprinted toward her, only for the blast from another attack to nearly rip his feet out from under him.
Avoiding the attack and sliding behind the steel beside her, he shoved his back against it as the ground shook.
"We need to get to Father!"
"How?!"
"Follow!"
Grabbing her hand, Panic drove his restraints into the steel slab and used it like a shield as he pulled her along. He had the best senses in the Brood, and using every one of them, he guided them through the worst of the chaos, changing direction whenever another surge threatened to catch them. Only after they'd gained enough distance did his restraints release the battered slab and let it crash behind them.
They kept running, and soon John buzzed up beside them, fully reformed. The three tore through the city together while the chaos continued, each distant impact still trembling through the streets.
All three had the same thought.
They'd barely seen anything through the chaos of the battle, but they didn't need to.
They could all sense that the old woman was losing.
----
Earlier, when Widow, John, and Mistress Grogh had just begun their fight, Snare found himself staring at Synapse's creation, his teeth grinding together.
"What is this?"
His voice was cold, not that his brother noticed.
"A dome."
"No sh—!"
Stopping himself before he lost his composure, Snare drew a slow breath before he throttled Synapse.
"Why is it so small?"
Synapse wasn't facing his brother, so he didn't see the choking gesture Snare gave him. His hands rested against the dome of meat and bone, faint bloodlight glowing beneath his palms.
"A dome, or an arch, is the simplest and most beautiful design in all of creation. No other can surpass its stability. I have factored in the enemy's estimated strength and accounted for multiple variables. All my calculations have led to this. I am currently increasing its durability by reinforcing the density while ensuring the load is distributed evenly. If you have any further doubts, keep them to yourself. You are outside your realm of expertise and wasting my mental energy by questioning me."
Feeling the urge to kill rising, Snare decided to let a little of it out—through someone else's effort, of course.
"Pain...test it."
"Sure."
An audible sigh came from Synapse.
"Attack the other side if you must."
Snare nodded, and Pain walked around to the opposite side. Opening his jaws, his chest split open as chains shot out and plunged down his throat. They returned wrapped around Surtur's Tooth, and the broodspawn spat to the side as he grabbed his weapon.
It had once been a two-handed weapon for him, looking enormous when he'd still been a broodling. Now, resting comfortably in one hand, it looked almost ordinary.
Raising his arm, Pain's muscles bulged as he brought the weapon down—
His arm bounced back immediately. His eyes widened for a second as the impact shuddered through the Firstborn's grip, yet not a single mark had been left behind.
"It's good."
Synapse merely rolled his eyes and kept working.
Feeling a bit of heat creeping up his neck, and not from Pain, Snare cleared his throat and nodded.
"Not bad. We'll leave you to it."
Snorting a puff of flame at the dome, Pain studied the spot he'd struck for another second before turning away to join Snare.
"Do we wait?"
Turning to look toward where Pain was staring, Snare's eyes glowed red.
"We would just get in the way."
His brother clenched his jaw, and the wails inside his chest intensified for a moment, but he didn't argue.
The black demon and the old woman were out of their league.
"If she fails, he will kill us all. There's nothing we can do about that. All we can do is live long enough to stall him until Father wakes. For that, I need you to stay back until the end. We will hold him as long as we can, then it will be up to you. Can you handle that?"
A surge of flames rolled off his brother as the screams within him grew louder, though the blue flame on his brow Snare had seen before was no longer there.
"I will give my life."
Just then, a scream from Mistress Grogh caught their attention. Through the broodlink, they could feel their sister's emotions running wild, and as the Warlord's screams continued in the distance, some of the tension eased from their shoulders. Widow had won.
"Bile's death has affected our sister quite deeply."
"She shames him."
Tilting his head slightly, Snare wasn't so sure.
"Love is not something a demon feels, brother. So what does that make us? Do you not love Father?"
"More than fire."
Snare could hear the sincerity in his brother's answer, just as clearly as he could feel the same emotion. He could feel the same love for his creator...and for himself.
"We are something different. Each of us more different than the last. Who knows, maybe love is her strength. Maybe it is part of ours."
Pain's brows drew together as he looked at his brother, completely lost in the conversation. He could at least tell that whatever Snare was saying was important, even if it sounded stupid.
"We are Brood. That is all."
"That is all...? It seems oftentimes the simple approach is the most effective. We are Brood. Indeed."
The two fell quiet.
They watched for their siblings' return. In the distance, Snare could see the old woman's aura spike into the sky before a giant black hand backhanded the enormous dog. Pain and Snare both squinted and leaned forward, but Snare realized a moment sooner where the beast was headed.
"Everyone eat faster! You too!"
At Snare's command, Pain ran straight for the nearest corpse, while Law and the others tore into theirs.
The black dog's impact shook the ground even from where they stood. Snare turned back, his eyes burning brighter as his vision stretched across the city until he spotted John's bugs gathering, then Widow stuffing herself back into her skin. He watched as Panic lifted the giant steel slab. His claws flexed repeatedly against his staff as he watched his brother weave through the chaos with almost clairvoyant precision, narrowly avoiding each attack until the two of them finally reached relative safety.
"That stupid human! If they get any closer—"
His grip loosened slightly, only to tighten again almost immediately.
The black demon had swung into his view, and was staring directly at him. Somehow, even across the distance, Snare heard his voice perfectly.
"No peeking."
"AAAGHH!!!"
Agonizing heat exploded through Snare's eyes as blood spilled down his face, sending him staggering.
"Snare!"
He could hear Pain's voice, but no matter how quickly he blinked or how much aura he gathered, nothing broke through the absolute black.
He was blind, and the battle was getting closer.